When one reviews team success over the past quarter-century of Big Ten cross country, two words should come to mind: Michigan and Wisconsin. Of the 25 conference championships since 1981, the two teams have combined for 20, including the Badgers' 13 and the Wolverines' seven, which includes the last four. Michigan State and Iowa claimed the first two league titles in 1981 and 1982, respectively, but it would be Wisconsin that earned the next six. Indiana, the only other team to win the conference crown, would do so in 1989 and 1990 before the conference yielded to the dominance of Michigan and Wisconsin. With exception of Michigan State's win in 2002, the Big Ten championship has been awarded to Michigan or Wisconsin since 1991 - a span of 15 years. After winning the 1991 conference title, the Badgers gave way to three-straight Michigan wins before capturing the next six. Recently, the Wolverines have re-established their dynasty, having won the championship each season since 2003.

On the national scene, Wisconsin captured the Big Ten's first two NCAA championships in women's athletics when the Badgers won back-to-back NCAA titles in 1984 and 1985. Since 1981, UW has recorded eight top-five finishes at the NCAA meet. Individually, six Big Ten standouts have become NCAA champions, three of which are Badgers. Wisconsin's Cathy Branta was the Big Ten's first female individual champion when her first-place finish at the 1984 meet helped the Badgers to the team title. Indiana posted a pair of back-to-back NCAA individual champions in Kimberly Betz (1987) and Michelle Dekkers (1988). Consecutive champions would occur a decade later, while following the 1995 title of Wisconsin's Kathy Butler, Michigan's Katie McGregor and Wisconsin's Erica Palmer won the national championship in 1998 and 1999, respectively.

Indiana's Dekkers is the only Big Ten runner to be named the conference's Athlete of the Year three times, as she earned the honor in 1988, 1989 and 1990. Dekkers, who set the league's 5,000-meter record winning time of 16:18.9 in 1989, won three-straight individual conference championships from 1988-90, joining Wisconsin's Branta (1982-84) as the only runners to accomplish the feat. Bethany Brewster, who ran for the Badgers from 1998-2001 and won the league title in her senior season, is the only female runner in the history of Big Ten cross country to earn All-Conference honors all four years.

Former Wisconsin head coach Peter Tegen, who retired after 30 years of service in Madison prior to the 2005 season, owns nine Big Ten Coach of the Year honors, which include a streak of six-straight from 1995-2000. Tegen is followed closely behind by current Michigan head coach Mike McGuire, who picked up his fourth-consecutive and seventh overall honor from the league in 2005. The 2005 campaign also served as the first year for Tegen's successor, former Badger All-American and Big Ten champion Jim Stinzi, who was named the conference's top coach in 2001 while at Michigan State.